Chapter 1
It began slowly with a mild jerk of his leg, a twitch on his face, Loki didn’t think much of it. It was harmless. It was needless to mention to anyone, and certainly didn’t warrant getting help from the healers. Not only that, but it would go away, Loki thought. It was probably just his nerves as he awaited his punishment from the All-father after trying to rule Midgard. Maybe it was just his lack of sleep, he hasn’t slept properly in six months, Thanos never let him sleep. If Loki fell asleep, Thanos and the other would shout at him and torture him.
What Loki didn’t think would happen, though, was that it was going to turn into something large. What Loki was never expecting happened right at the moment he was chained in front of the All-father, he could feel his heartbeat beating through his chest and the shackles around his neck and wrists clanked together as Loki went from standing to collapsing on the ground.
Loki never anticipated seeing the look of worry and concern on Thor’s and Frigga’s faces. It was all he could think about before he passed out.
“Stress is a likely cause,” Eir said.
“But the jerking?” Thor asked.
“Likely related to stress,” eir said.
“Your course of action?” Odin asked, Loki was awake but barely alert. He was surprised that Odin had bothered to show up. After his first words being to Loki, your birthright was to die.
“Bed rest. And lots of it”. Eir said.
“Then his cell in the dungeons will do,” Odin said.
But, father—” Thor began and was cut off at once.
“Thor, Loki, is a war criminal in both Asgard and Midgard. He has done many bad things and must be treated as such.” “It would be foolish to trust in him so soon after everything that’s happened. Your brother has always been mischievous, do not forget that. It is merely another trick to get us to waver with our doubts. Do not feed into them. He has a bed in the dungeons, he can rest there. That is all.”
“He will be alright, my son,” Frigga whispered to her eldest.
Thor seemed unconvinced.
“This doesn’t feel right, mother.”
“I know”
There was a swift, hard knock on the side of Loki’s bed that met with a grumbled and irritable, “Get up.”
Loki thrust his arms over his face in defiance. He had a horrible headache.
“No.”
The chains still around his wrists clanked together, stopping him from defending himself
“It wasn’t a question.” The gruff voice deadpanned.
There was a pause in the conversation where Loki thought maybe he’d have the upper hand before another guard came over to his bedside and grabbed forcefully at a clump of his hair.
“Now, monster !”
Loki couldn’t stop a yelp from escaping his lips before his eyes thrust open and caught the guard in question’s blue eyes reflecting glee at his dismay. Loki was risen a few inches off the bed from where their hand was capturing his hair. He felt dizzy.
The guard smiled, “Not so tough now, eh?”
“Make no mistake, guard, for I am still above you.” Loki snarled back in contempt. Feeling dizzier Every second, he was sitting up.
The guard laughed, releasing Loki’s hair quickly before laughing again. Knocking him to the floor and Loki was barely able to keep awake.
“And who do you think yourself to be?”
Loki opened his mouth to answer quickly, but found that he couldn’t think of a witty reply. His head was hurting too much.
Who was he now? After all was said and done, what was he besides a monster?
And at that moment he passed out.
Loki woke back up, his head was hurting, he thought it was probably from where he hit it on the floor when Alastor let go of his hair.
The guard’s lips quirked into a pleased smile. “You are nothing, trickster.”
The taunt danced in the air to Loki,
He huffed and shook his head, trying to pretend that he didn’t care, but a hint of hurt mirrored in his green eyes.
The guard, unfortunately, picked up on this.
“Oh? Do you think you’re still a prince of these realms? Well, you aren’t, trickster. You are nothing to this realm, and we are better off without you. You’re lucky the All-father still has a soft spot for you in his heart to not abide by executing you, you are pathetic, Instead, he’s keeping you imprisoned in the dungeons. Make no mistake now, trickster, for there is no asylum for you here. We will mess with you, as we so please, and there is not anything you can do about it.” The guard shoved Loki forwards so that he stumbled and landed roughly on his knees.
Loki could feel himself start shaking Again, he tried to hold it off until the guard was out of the room, but the guard saw him starting to shake.
“Are you going to continue faking?” “We all know you’re faking it, there’s no need to carry it on, no one believes you and They never will,” the guard tells Loki.
The guard picked up the back of Loki’s shirt easily and shoved him forwards again. “This is for opening our kingdom to the frost Giants as well for that humiliating prank you played on me a few hundred years ago and for the things you did on Midgard”.
And then he left minutes later Loki passed out again having his second seizure of the day.
The guard with a personal vendetta against Loki turned out to be Alastor. Alastor the atrocious, as Loki liked to think of him. They had had an altercation over 200 years ago, and Alastor had. Not appreciated a prank that Loki had pulled on him—even though it was hilarious and Numerous people laughed at it.
But now, Alastor was making his revenge on Loki’s treatment within the dungeons as spiteful as possible. Most of it was harmless. Alastor lacked cruelty in his physical attributes, but the malice in his words was what cut through Loki like a knife.
One evening, Alastor had brought a plate from dinner to Loki’s cell.
Loki stared at the empty plate with a few chicken bones still on it
“Oh, I apologize, trickster. Were you hungry?” He laughed.
“You’re not worth food, trickster.” He leveled Loki with a practiced glare and dropped the plate to the stone floor so loudly that it made a few other prisoners in nearby cells jump.
Loki’s jaw muscles tightened, not to fuel the fire. He made it as far as Alastor reaching the farthest corner of his cell before he shouted back at him:
“I must say, Alastor, pink just wasn’t your color.”
Alastor’s back tightened, and he swiveled his face to the side over his shoulder
“For that comment, you don’t eat for the next two weeks.”
“Oh, what a pleasure it’s been doing service with you, Alastor,” Loki muttered, rolling his eyes and turning back to his book.
Before he realized it, in what could only have been a second, his book crashed to the floor of his cell when Alastor roared in hate and slammed his fists onto the golden impenetrable wall. Disoriented, Loki sat up from his spot no longer on his bed but on the white marble, uncertain as to how he had gotten there.
Instead of hatred and meanness in Alastor’s face, there was pleasure.
“Looks like the trickster’s no longer in good health. I wonder if the All-father will repent his sins because that’s what you want isn’t it, for him to believe you and forgive you and forget nobody believes you and they never will, and I’ll make sure of it.”
Loki blinked, a silence following him as he tried to think of what just happened. His mind carrying blank, he stared back at Alastor with shock on his features.
“I-I’m fine.” He lied,
“Don’t worry, Loki, your secret is safe with me.” Alastor smiled before trotting away and Loki had a feeling in his chest that that meant no guard would be on his side for alerting anyone about his health.